First things first. I am a budgie not an owl. I am only named after an owl who is in a book which is a big thing with delicious paper to chew on. The book is called Harry Potter which I think is a funny name for delicious paper; it should be called food. I don't understand books anyway; Mama Hen is always paying attention to the black spots on the delicious paper when she should be paying attention to me. Anyway, this owl in the book is very small and flies around a lot and so am I and so do I. Mama Hen said the first time she read about the little owl that he sounded like a budgie, so now I'm an budgie that sounds like an owl. (Mama Hen says I have attitude and calls me a "biker budgie." Well, of course. Budgies are members of the parrot family and we all have 'tudes. That's because we are smart. I don't know what a biker is, though.)

Second, my nickname is not "Pig" like the owl. I have a nickname all my own. I am "Pidge." (Mama Hen calls me "Pidgie," but that is okay because she is Mama.)

I am also gorgeous, of course. I have a yellow face that shades to a yellow-green color on my body (they call it chartreuse). The lower part of my body is green and my tail is grey-green. The stripes on my wings and head are grey instead of black. Mama Hen does not know if that makes me a cinnamon-wing or a grey-wing. Silly, it means I have pretty wings, period.

I used to live in a big cage with a bunch of other budgies. We pulled each other's tails and had to share food. Then one day the human-rooster who took care of us took us to a big room called a bird show. Humans came by and looked at us. Then a human hen and rooster stopped. They talked to the man. They looked at us budgies. I was curious and almost nibbled on the hen's finger. Then his hand came in our cage and grabbed me and put me in a box. I was scared of the box for a few minutes and then I tried to escape. The box moved a lot. First we went in a room that made a growling noise and felt like it was moving. I know better now; that was not a room it was a car and I have been in one lots of times. For a few minutes we stopped at a place with some people and a lot of light and dog and budgie voices. [Mama Hen's translation: Petsmart] Then we moved in the car again. Then I heard the hen and rooster talk and make noise.

Next thing I knew I was in a big, big cage. All to myself! It had food just for me. Water just for me. Toys and perches and millet just for me.

Now I know this is my home and I am in charge of it; I have been here for over two years. The hen and the rooster who brought me here adopted me and are now Mama Hen and Daddy. At first I thought they wanted to eat me. Then I found out all Mama Hen wanted to do is have me sit on her finger so she could kiss my beak. That is real easy. Hens are crazy for kissing, I found out. Of course now that I am a grown-up budgie with no stripes on my forehead I like kissing, too. I kiss my food dish and my water dish and my mirror and my rings and my toys...well, anything that doesn't move. Especially Girlfriend! I love Girlfriend! [Mama Hen's translation: his green toy]

There are some real interesting things here. I live in a big room with books and deeveedees and computers that is called a great room, and the best thing in the room is something called a teevee. It has color pictures of different things and it makes sounds all the time so I know the condors are not coming to grab my wings and eat me. That's what condors do with budgies, you know. Teevee is nice. Sometimes it has music or what the humans call music anyway. It is nothing like birdsong. Mama Hen says they need things called instruments to make music sometimes. I just sing!

We used to live in another nest where I lived in something called a "den," but it still had the books and deeveedees and computers and the teevee. But then Mama Hen and Daddy put all the books and deeveedees in boxes and people came and we moved to a new nest. Humans have lots of things, so it isn't as simple as when a bird moves to a new nest. But that is okay with me because I still have my teevee.

The other interesting thing here is called a dog and is very weird. It walks on four legs and is covered with hair. Honest. All over. It doesn't talk or sing, it makes a noise called a bark (sometimes a lot). The dog has a name called Willow which I thought was a tree but Mama Hen says it is a character in something called Buffy. Anyway, sometimes I go on the floor with her and she sticks her nose at me and goes "sniff" and I run after her and she runs after me and I fly, which she hates, but it's more interesting trying to eat the carpet because then Mama Hen says no and pays attention to me.

I have some different kinds of food in my cage. One is just plain old seed of different colors and kinds. My sister the dog likes sunflower seeds, but I don't eat those. Sister is great for leftovers. I also have some of what Mama Hen calls fruit seed [Mama Hen's translation: pellets]. These are different colors. They don't taste like seed but they taste okay, so I won't tell Mama Hen they aren't seed. Sometimes I have millet. Millet is the most delicious thing in the world and I don't understand why I never see humans eating it. A couple of times they have given me a big green thing called a celery leaf. It tastes green.

I also eat some human food. I have drunk something called "chicken soup." A chicken is a dumb bird who was stupid enough to get caught. I have also nibbled on cashew nuts, bread, biscuits, something weird called "meat," and a dog biscuit. Sister didn't like that at all!

Right after I was adopted I learned to ride in my little box with my toys—I have lots of bird toys like a barbell and "flying saucers" and string; Girlfriend is a green "flying saucer" but she is not a toy she is Girlfriend—so we could go on something called a vacation to visit Grandma. This was fun. I got to go into stores and Sister couldn't come. People looked at me and said "Look, a bird!" So I am very well traveled. I have been in ten States which I think are like cages. There is also something called Merry Chrisbird. Mama Hen has lots of books about Merry Chrisbird that I look forward to eating. There was a big tree with shiny balls and strips of silver on it, special food, and Merry Chrisbird music that drives Daddy crazy. Sometimes we have other human hens and roosters come visit. This is called a Party. Everybody makes a fuss about me. Sister just barks at them. Mama Hen says this is because Sister is a Watch Dog. I wish she would just watch and shut up.

After my first Merry Chrisbird and That Damn Spring (well, that's what Mama Hen calls it because she likes when the leaves are dead instead), Mama Hen went away and left me with Daddy and Sister. Then she came back with Grandma Hen. I thought we could play, but Grandma didn't feel well and didn't want me to sit on her head and sing to her. So I just sang. Then Grandma went away, but I don't know how. Sister said she went to Rainbow Bridge. We just rode in the car through the States again and then came home. Mama Hen was sad after that so I sang to her a lot.

Lately I have had two scary things happened: I went to the hospital. I was preening my new feffers like I have to do to stay a gorgeous birdie and one of them broke (both times) and the vetlady at the hospital had to remove it because it was bleeding all over my pretty feffers. I cawed at the vetladies because they are big and scary. Now I am all messy and I have to preen my feffers again. [ruffle]

My Photos

This is me as a baby. Wasn't I cute? That was so long ago-- over two years!
	These are buttons behind my house. I like to bounce them. It's fun.
Here I am lifting up my barbell! I like to toss it off the cage. I have Mama Hen trained to pick them up!
	Here I am, ready for bed. This is my roosting perch. I do not nest. Nesting is for hens.

My Links

Links are something on the Internet. These Links are about Budgies like me.

• Budgie Madness
• The Budgerigar Home Page
• Me and My Budgie
• Budgerigars for Pleasure

This is a story Mama Hen wrote about having budgies!

• "A Gift of Wings"

Budgies can learn to talk like Humans says Mama Hen. We are originally from somewhere called "Stralia." That is waaaaaaaay south of here. Here is how a Budgie would talk like a Human in Stralia.

You can visit Mama Hen's page! (She has Teevee stories and Books and Merry Chrisbird on it!)

Visit my Daddy's page! (He has airplanes on it!)

Please visit my Sister's page, or she will get insecure. Budgies are never insecure. Unless there is a loud noise. Or if it's quiet. Or if there's a cat. Or...

This is Bandit, who lived here before me. Sister says he was swell.